But I wonder whether Facebook really inventing anything here that hadn’t already been demonstrated before. After all, Twitter – which uses some of the same ideas – was launched in July 2006, while Flickr had already been trialling a similar system for keeping you updated about activity on the site for a couple of years.

Facebook’s application was filed on August 11 of 2006, a few weeks before it launched on the site but after those rival services were already doing some similar things.

This is very early, more analysis will emerge. But hard to see this as a positive development… Or as reason for confidence in the current patent system.